This video was created by Destin Sandlin from Smarter Every Day (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6107grRI4m0o2-emgoDnAA).

This video exemplifies the intersection between art, science and engineering by having a combination of excellent visuals, a fascinating phenomenon, and shows the process of developing an apparatus to demonstrate the complex interactions at play. These stunning visuals and engineering prowess puts Destin’s work in a different class.

In the video, Destin demonstrates a phenomenon wherin two colliding vortex rings create a series of smaller, regular, orthogonal vortex rings along the circumference of the collision. This is an incredibly difficult thing to capture, and as stated in the video, took years to perfect. While this is not very well understood, the vortex rings get created when the collision propels the flow radially. The high velocity creates a low pressure zone, pulling in surrounding water, and creating a plume away from the center. Because a plume dominates a region around it, they space out evenly, creating the effect. Eventually, this plume of fast moving water creates the signature vortex rings that we see.